1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for improving the performance of storage devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to techniques for controlling vibration modes in storage devices.
2. Related Art
Vibration-related problems are increasingly prominent in high-performance computer systems, such as servers, mainframes, and supercomputers. These vibration-related problems may be caused by several factors. First, cooling fans have become larger, more numerous, and operate at higher rotational speeds to compensate for the increased heat generated by components, such as integrated circuits. Moreover, cheaper and more lightweight materials, which are currently used in the chassis and support structures, are less effective at dampening vibrations than heavier and more expensive materials. In addition, newer generations of storage devices, such as hard-disk drives (HDDs), are more sensitive to vibration-induced degradation.
In particular, the storage density and performance of HDDs continue to increase. At these increased densities, a write head of an HDD may be required to write a track that is less than 20 nanometers in width. Moreover, the write head may be separated from a corresponding platter by a distance of several nanometers. In addition, the platter may be spinning at speeds of up to 15,000 revolutions per minute (rpm). These factors have caused the latest generation of HDDs to be more sensitive to vibrations.
Vibration-related problems may cause the HDDs within a computer system to experience reductions in read and write throughput. Furthermore, the increased internal latencies caused by the degraded throughput may cause software applications to hang, crash, and/or reboot.
Unfortunately, these problems are often exacerbated by existing mounting assemblies (such as drive brackets) that are used to position HDDs in a computer system. Typically, mounting assemblies (and their associated HDDs) are designed to be easily removed and inserted from the computer system, which results in increased mechanical tolerances and larger gaps between the mounting assemblies and corresponding slots in the computer system. However, these gaps allow increased vibration of HDDs in a computer system, with a commensurate impact on HDD and computer-system performance. Furthermore, it is often difficult to modify existing mounting assemblies to address these problems without impacting the ease with which the HDDs can be inserted and removed, and/or impeding cooling airflow.
Hence, what is needed is a mounting assembly for storage devices without the above-described problems.